We have a very important series of
events that are happening for people
who right now are dealing with the
struggle of paying for groceries.
We have been talking about this,
it seems like, for months now,
inflation so high.
Pastor Santiago from the Rock Church,
thank you for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
So tell us what you'll be doing
to help out so many families.
Yeah, we're really excited.
This is our provisions ministry.
And we started this actually back before
the pandemic at one of our campuses.
And then when everything shut down,
we lost it at every campus.
And so we've been doing this.
Every week for about a year and a half,
we have a food distribution at one of
our locations and we're doing a special
Thanksgiving food distribution next week.
And we're excited to partner
with feeding San Diego.
And Hollandia Dairy actually is
donating 400 gallons of milk
to our San Marcos location.
So that's going to be amazing
way to serve San Diego.
We just had a story about how dairy,
the prices have gone up.
People have noticed this.
I mean they're going grocery shopping.
You're bill is $100 more
than it maybe used to be.
So it's tough.
People are deciding between rent,
groceries, how to make it all work.
So tell me about the demand right now.
Are you seeing a lot of people yeah.
Who need some of this help.
Yeah. We actually average anywhere
from 2 to 300 people that come to our
food distributions per week every.
And like you said we just I just
googled how much a gallon of milk
cost just to be sure we're accurate
and it's about $5 and so dollars,
400 gallons is, is could be north
of $2000 and we're just thankful
that we're able to serve San Diego.
Yeah. And help families.
That are in need,
OK and we're looking at a lot of the
items that went into this box and
they took them out and this is what's
inside one of those. So these are
things that will last a long time.
I think that's really important.
You can put this obviously in your pantry.
You don't have to use it immediately.
The non perishables that they always
talk about really could help out.
So this is rice, beans, you have pasta,
really good stuff here,
stuffing mix, corn,
muffins all from feeding San Diego
exactly and this is their holiday box.
So we got the stuffing mix.
Yeah, we got some holiday.
Things in there.
But we'll have dry goods.
We'll have canned goods in the boxes.
We'll have produce available.
We're also gonna be giving away
diapers and things like that.
Sometimes we have hygiene packs and
things that we're able to give out.
So this is a a great way for us to
serve the families of San Diego.
And you've been doing this weekly,
but this next few days are
gonna do a bunch at once,
right? Tell us about normally
we have one every week, OK?
But next week we have our first one on
Tuesday at our El Cajon campus, OK?
And then on Thursday we have.
And at our other locations,
which is Chula Vista,
City Heights Point Loma and up in San Marcos.
And for anyone who wants to come out,
you don't have to be a member
of the Rock, right.
You don't have to sign up.
You can just come.
And so all the information is on our website,
sdrock.com/provisions and you can get the
times and locations for anybody to come out.
And if anybody wants to volunteer,
we we need volunteers.
We need people to help load these
boxes into cars and cars to help
direct traffic and welcome people
because we we want people to to feel.
Good about just receiving and and we
just want to be able to support the
people in San Diego so they can find
information on that also on the website.
OK. And I wanna ask you about that.
For so many people,
it's hard to admit that, hey,
I'm having a tough time.
I talked to that.
I mean, I think a lot of people may
feel embarrassed that they need help.
But we are all going through this,
if you can touch on that,
because we want anyone who is
worried about their groceries
to feel comfortable coming
to get the help they need.
Yeah. And that's one of the
reasons we don't do a sign up.
We don't do a registration.
You don't have to give your name.
You just show up and
nobody's asking questions.
And we're just here to support
the people in San Diego.
And we're thankful for our partners
that help us make it possible.
And so it's always a welcoming environment,
right? And it's welcoming.
They wanna see you here.
Yes, I think that's key.
They want to see you show up
and get the help you need.
No questions asked, no judgment,
of course. Absolutely.
This is all about giving right now.
It's the season of giving, right?
It's the holidays,
and people want to be able to
help out as much as they can. And.
The fact that feeding San Diego can
fill these boxes goes to show that
they've received a lot of donations.
The people of San Diego have been generous.
They've been able to collect
these boxes and fill them up.
So absolutely. See that?
And Hollandia dairy, too.
That's a big deal.
Yeah, 400 gallons.
That's a big commitment.
And we're super thankful that
we're gonna be able to support
the families in San Diego.
I love that. And also the fresh fruit.
I think that's a big part of
things because you don't want
to just eat dried goods, right?
Try to warm those up.
So this is also a nice added
vitamins and all the things
that we'll have,
we'll have produce out there.
In fact, we, we bought our mailing.
Who's back there.
She bought this on the way in and
she said you wouldn't believe
how much it was just for this.
And we're like we're gonna give it away,
give it, and we're gonna give
it all the way next week.
And so we're excited to to help families
out. Very nice. So again,
it starts, you said, on Tuesday,
Tuesday at our El Cahone campus,
and then the other locations on
Thursday and all the informations on
our website, sdrock.com/provisions.
OK. So check that out.
Find out what's closest to your neighborhood.
Some people might be able to
walk up and get them, too.
Yeah, in case they don't have cars.
OK. Thank you, Pastor,
for joining us. Thank you.